Louisiana scores $603 million federal grant to advance quest to be carbon capture capital
Louisiana will receive up to $603 million in federal funding to plan and construct underground carbon capture hubs in Calcasieu Parish, further solidifying the state as the carbon capture capital of the South.
Republican Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said the award is the largest so far granted from the 2021 Infrastructure Act of which Cassidy was a primary architect.
“Carbon capture opens a new era of energy and manufacturing dominance for Louisiana," Cassidy said. "It is the future of job creation and economic development for our state. It’s for this reason that I wrote the original the Direct Air Capture Hub program and ensured its inclusion in the infrastructure bill.”
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has also hailed the state's advancement as a hub for the technology, where more than $7 billion in projects have been announced in the past three years, including the 2021 announcement of Air Products' $4.5 billion "blue hydrogen" carbon capture complex in Ascension Parish.
"We're a natural fit for it," Edwards said in a previous interview with USA Today Network. "This is where capital investment is going to continue to flow."
While the growing economic impact of carbon sequestration projects is clear, opponents argue the actual effectiveness of the technology is not.
Skeptics of carbon sequestration say the technology is experimental, untested and just a way to allow the continued use of fossil fuels.
The Sierra Club has described carbon sequestration as "greenwashing that will create more pollution."
Cassidy said Project Cypress in southwestern Louisiana is receiving an initial $50 million to begin development of a regional Direct Air Capture hub that will be a public-private partnership with multiple companies. The total could grow to $603 million if the companies meet development requirements.
Cassidy said the project is designed to capture more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually and sequester it permanently underground. Battelle will act as the DAC Hub owner in partnership with technology providers Climeworks Corporation and Heirloom Carbon Technologies, Inc.
He said Project Cypress intends to rely on Gulf Coast Sequestration for the offtake and geologic storage of the captured carbon. The owner of GCS, the Stream family of companies, is also supporting Project Cypress as the landowner and lessor of the host site in southwest Louisiana, Cassidy said.
At its full value, the Project Cypress award is the largest competitive grant award issued as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to date. The project is one of only two in the country that has the opportunity to claim the full grant value, Cassidy said.
Separately, LSU is receiving $3 million for the Pelican-Gulf Coast Carbon Removal project to build a examine additional carbon capture hub opportunities in Louisiana.
More: How Louisiana became the carbon capture capital of the South with $6 billion in projects
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Federal grant advances Louisiana quest as carbon capture capital of South
